Penn State reports nearly $20M in scandal costs

STATE COLLEGE - Penn State's price tag to pay for legal fees, consultants and public relations firms to handle the fallout from the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal has neared $20 million.

Updated figures on a university website Wednesday showed costs totaling $19.2 million by the end of July. The majority of that figure, about $11.2 million, is for the school's internal investigation into the scandal and crisis communications.

The investigation was led by former FBI director Louis Freeh, whose scathing report concluded that the late head coach Joe Paterno and three school officials concealed allegations against Sandusky. Paterno's family and the officials firmly deny the conclusions.

Another $4.5 million went to pay for the university legal services and defense, plus $2 million for the legal defense of the three officials.